Baby, It's Cold Outside

This morning I've been mainly looking at photos of Curacao and drooling all over myself. We are planning to book, so if you've been, please provide tips and such (thank you!)

Yesterday, after standing in the freezing cold for almost an hour and a half (heads up, Uggs do not work if you stand in one spot for this long in single digit weather), we finally got to enter the theater for the annual Oscars Best Picture Showcase (AKA Ethan Hawking day - I just thought of that!) We had already seen The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I thought was okay, but I'm not a huge Wes Anderson fan so it was my least favorite of the 5/8 Best Picture-nominated films I've seen.

The first of the day was Boyhood, which was really great. For some reason, I thought that they had filmed all of the actors at 3 points over 12 years, but this isn't the case - the film shows them (all of the actors) at multiple points over the 12 years. For the idea and execution, I definitely think it deserves the Oscar.  

The music from each era played throughout the movie (as you could imagine), but I couldn't focus on the party scene because 'Helena Beat' was playing in the background and I got so excited that I couldn't see straight.

Also, can I be friends with the lead guy? His character is super chill and I want a friend like that. 

The second film was The Theory of Everything. I readied my packet of tissues in the cup holder - a good plan as I cried about 17 times (though the tissues were scented which threw me off in the middle of my hysterics.) Overall, I liked the movie and it made me emotional and appreciative of all that I have in my life, but I wasn't blown away. I think he'll get the Best Actor Oscar because, well, he's playing Stephen Hawking, but really I'd like Cumberbatch to get it. Felicity Jones was excellent, by the way.

Let's also take a second to look at how similar Eddie Redmayne and Stephen Hawking look here:

The Imitation Game was next and it was mine and Dave's favorite of the lot:

The story was excellent, as was the acting. I really hope this wins something (is it nominated for Screenplay?) I have a feeling it just won't though.

We ended the day with American Sniper:

I generally like war movies, but watching this one kind of scared the crap out of me (equal parts terrorist and sandstorm.) At the same time, it reminded me of The Walking Dead, swapping out zombies for terrorists, which was probably a weird, yet fitting way of looking at it.

Overall, I probably liked yesterday's movies almost equally, though The Imitation Game and Boyhood were preferable to me in terms of Oscar-worthyness.

I would also like to thank AMC Lows 34th Street for their kind reminder in every bathroom stall - "Please do not flush 3D glasses down the toilet." Huh? Who does that??

We just passed the 1 year anniversary of moving to our "new" apartment (and what better way to celebrate than with a leak coming down through the walls from the 3rd floor?? Don't worry, we have our Spongebob towel soaking up the water, because that's what he does.) Anyway, our neighbor brought us part of a sugar cookie house the other day:

I love getting baked goods from her, it's sweet (literally and figuratively.) Much better than our old upstairs neighbors who would have techno dance parties every Sunday afternoon.

Does anyone have a Roku? We are thinking about buying one. Advice please?

Oh yeah!  This happened the other day:

At least it was sunny?

Current Music: Foster the People: Pumped Up Kicks

We Stayed in by the Telly

A few months ago, I received a notification that I may be able to participate in an some e-book settlement. Without hesitation, and without having any idea what book I purchased or which app I used to do so with for this case, I opted in. Well, my settlement has come folks, and oh, is it sweet:

In case you can't read that, it's for a whopping $0.73. Woohoo! I can buy, uh, erm, one of those singular Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Miniatures from the gas station convenience shop with my settlement money (hopefully.)

Dave's parents bought us a personalized calendar with our names in all different scenarios for Xmas this year.  Here's February:

And for the record, here is January:

We're watching old Jools Holland episodes. He led one of the introductions as "Now, let's enjoy Aloe Blacc!"  I like that intro, it's cute in a show where introductions can be repetitive. For the 'mericans who don't know Jools, he was previously in the band Squeeze. Have some "Up the Junction":

That's one of those songs I only first heard a few years ago and found out it was Squeeze, and then was like that's Squeeze?!

Which was kind of like the time when I was like, "Hey, what's this song? I like it!" and the Google search turned up Depeche Mode:

And same for this Blondie song (swoon):

Then she performed it at Glastonbury this year, and I was all kinds of happy:

It's absolutely freezing outside, so I've been watching the Saturday Night Live in the 80s and 90s specials on VH1 all day today. I remembered so many of the sketches and jokes to the T, meanwhile I can't even remember what I ate for lunch today. They were interspersing musicians' clips and they were so 90s-tastic - Garbage, Barenaked Ladies, and my boys got featured too:

Oasis - Don't Go Away - Saturday Night Live 1997 from Melwen Tinuviel on Vimeo.

Noel Gallagher tickets went on sale on Friday morning at 10 am for Webster Hall in May, and yes, I set a Fitbit alarm just to make sure I got back to my desk in time for this. This was the chain of events:

Ticketmaster site at 9:59 am --> refresh --> refresh --> redirected to Ticketweb very slowly --> Noel Gallagher Webster Hall search --> select 2 tickets & checkout --> loading --> loading --> panic --> call Dave to get tickets --> Dave doesn't answer --> original screen still loading --> go on Ticketweb on my phone --> go on second web browser for tickets --> panic some more --> 10:07 am tickets sold out --> 10:08 am 122 tickets on sale at Stubhub for more than double the price --> I leave to cry in the bathroom.

Well, the last part wasn't true but I was close to it. I'm usually so good at getting tickets pre-sell out (reference Franz Ferdinand at Bowery Ballroom here, and Radiohead at Roseland here.) There are activist groups against touts rights? Because I think I've found a cause that I can truly get behind. (I'm seeing him at Governor's Ball, but the set and size won't be the same. Totally not the point.) Still not sure if I'm more upset or furious, but probably the former.

Also, Papa John's now has a PIZZA WITH PICKLES ON IT!

Current Music: Paul McCartney - Let Me Roll It

Neighborhood #1

Last night, Dave and I walked around our old section of the neighborhood for the first time in months to see what was still in business, what had closed, and what had opened. The King of Falafel went from simple street cart to a huge green monstrosity:

I know they've won the Vendy and always have a huge line so they needed to expand, but it was a ridiculous sight. There's even a TV screen menu on the other side! They have a regular-sized cart on 30th Ave. so there is still some authenticity to be found if you like to get your shawarma the old-fashioned way.

Crescent Lounge, right by our old block, is now closed. The replacement bar looks very similar, and is showing the Grammys tonight, so it's probably the same clientele.

And not that I walked past it, but Scandals, the strip club by Queensboro Plaza has closed. End of an era, amiright?

We finally checked out sekend sun (new-ish bar in the old Veslo space.) $2 off happy hour till 8 pm on a Saturday + good music + giant Queens sign. Might be my new favorite place?

Bonus: I spilt an entire glass of wine and the waitress replaced it for free (they are definitely getting a nice Yelp review for that.) I got white wine all over my sweater, crotch, front of my jeans, and somehow, the backs of my knees into my boots. Then I walked home in 25 degree weather which was not so pleasant. As a side note, I also accidentally spit my gum out into my hair while I was walking and talking, not once, but twice last night. So, um, yeah.

They played Penguin Prison in the Gap today. They are finally playing Brooklyn in March and I'm going, hooray! That's the same week that I'm going to see Catfish & the Bottlemen and The Cribs, so I might die.

We got dancing speakers.  Jealous much?

Current Music: Catfish & The Bottlemen: Cocoon (still on repeat)

Channels in the Stream

This morning's Tottenham v. Arsenal game inspired me to finally write a blog post. Can you PLEASE look at this resemblance??

Guys - Tomas Rosicky is Bruce Jenner's secret love child!

The fact that I think that I'm the first one to see this resemblance (and it actually got me to write a blog post for the first time in months) is pretty lame indeed, but I really believe I've discovered something here. That's on top of the fact that it took me 20 minutes how to figure out how to put these images side by side on the Mac. But hey, that's what Saturday mornings are for right?

We've decided to join the ranks of the anti-cable movement by calling it quits and moving directly to streaming. Well, that was until Time Warner talked us into a sweet deal of keeping the few basic stations + DVR + high speed internet for $100/month cheaper than what we were paying today. We've got HBO Go (thanks for letting us "borrow" your account mom and dad) and Netflix, and we're going to get Hulu Plus so I think we're all set. This means that I can still DVR all of my favorite reality TV shows (Survivor, Amazing Race, Big Brother) and watch Mindy Girl and New Project (uh, yes, I really just wrote that) with the ability to fast forward through commercials. Now, we just need to find out how to get the AMC shows and we'll be ready to call Saul.

This morning, I was looking through some old posts from summer 2006 of when I traveled to SE Asia (I was sending the links to a friend who is going), and there is literally 1 photo posted from the entire 5 week trip. I cannot believe how much difficulty I used to have with uploading photos to this site, along with adjusting the layout - I used to spend hours trying to post things on here. Today, the Jenner-Rosicky photo posted in its right place in a split second! My, how the web has has evolved. Also, I noticed some pretty horrific spelling errors in those posts, as well as the use of the word "component" instead of "opponent." {CRINGING}

Since I'm heading out to Zumba shortly (yes, I used to think it was the "lazy person's exercise" but I've since seen the light), I'll leave you with my most favorite Zumba song ever (I play it so much, even Dave knows the words.) You can thank me later.